1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medical diagnostics, and in particular, to swallowable medical diagnostic devices.
2. Background Art
The population of the United States is aging. The first wave of the 78 million “Baby Boomers” is beginning to turn 60 years old. There has been an explosion in diabetes cases, estimated at 194 million cases worldwide today, and predicted to reach 350 million cases by year 2025. Obesity currently affects two thirds of the U.S. population. There is a rising incidence of cardiac problems for women (the number one cause of death for women). Hepatitis C will soon reach epidemic levels, infecting nearly 5 million people, more than the number of people infected with AIDS in the U.S. Thus, simple and easy diagnostic and treatment techniques are needed, especially because many of the diseases that afflict the population are chronic, requiring repeat testing and treatment over time.
Such diagnostic and treatment techniques may be realized by using a swallowable sensor device that is ingested by a patient. The swallowable sensor device could be used to sense a condition and/or deliver medical treatment as it travels through the patient's gastrointestinal tract.
However, conventional swallowable sensor devices have several drawbacks. One drawback of conventional swallowable sensor devices is that they are quite large. In fact, conventional swallowable sensor devices are so large that a portion of the patient population cannot even swallow these devices. Even if a patient could swallow a conventional swallowable sensor device, its large size could cause it to become lodged in the patient's gastrointestinal tract, which would require surgery to remove.
Another problem with conventional swallowable sensor devices is that they use a radio frequency (RF) signal platform to communicate with external entities. The extent to which RF signals cause harm to human tissue is not fully understood. The potential for harm only increases as the source of the RF signals comes closer to human tissue. As a result, many patients are apprehensive about ingesting conventional swallowable sensor devices.
Given the foregoing, what is needed is an improved swallowable sensor device, and a method for manufacturing such a swallowable sensor device.
The features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which like reference characters identify corresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.